Food blogger sentenced to five years in prison after viral video of her eating a bat

After filming a now-viral video of her devouring an entire bat, a Thai woman was given a five-year prison term.

The video was uploaded by Phonchanok Srisunaklua to her nearly 390,000-fan Facebook page, “Kin Saeb Nua Nua” (Eating it Delicious and Hot).

Srisunaklua is shown in the video selecting a bat from a bowl where other dead creatures are floating in tomato soup while referring to herself as Khru (teacher) Jui.

She stretches the bat’s wings and compares eating a bat to “eating raw meat” before breaking it apart and devouring it. She described how the bat’s skin was sticky and its nails smelled like rats.

She says, “It has teeth,” and then she points a full bat at the camera, stating, “The bones are soft.” She then starts to crunch on the bones and continues, “The bones are soft.”

Internet users who expressed concern about the video’s negative effects on their health expressed their outrage at Srisunaklua’s behavior.

However, on Monday, Srisunaklua updated her post to say that she was “still alive” and that the video had been taken two days earlier.

According to local media, the blogger originally denied the accusations made against her but afterwards uploaded a video apology to “society, doctors, journalists, colleagues, family, and friends,” claiming that she was “not thinking,” before retracting her denials.

She now faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a fine of 500,000 baht (about Ksh.1.7 million) for possessing dead animals that are protected by law and for breaking the Computer Crimes Act (2007).